Do We Have a Deal?
by TheSongContinues
Summary: Belle is forced to make a deal with the dreaded Mr. Gold after her father can't keep up with his payments on a loan. Will eventually contain M content.
**Okay, yet another fic started by me. I'm sorry, I know I've started a few and never got around to finishing them- but I have quite strong motivation for this one, so please bear with me. I will update the tags of the fic as the story progresses, but please be aware that this will later contain BDSM of some variety. This fic also takes place in a none cursed Storybrooke, but does contain similar events.**

 **I don't own OUAT, if I did- Rumbelle would never have any problems, Neal wouldn't be dead… I would be here forever if I listed everything I would have done differently.**

Belle French's life had only ever been average. She had her ups, she had her downs- but that was the same for every other person. She had moved to the small town known as Storybrooke in Maine when she was five, as her parents wanted to move away and start a business. After much debate on what kind of business to create, they had managed to settle on the idea of making a flower shop.

Ever since she was a toddler her mother Colette, had always read to her. It mostly occurred in the evening when Belle was ready to go to bed, and Colette would sit on a patch of bed next to Belle, or the small chair that had always been next to Belle's bed, she'd read to her until Belle had finally managed to drift off to sleep. That's what really started Belle's love of books, that's what drove her to become librarian. Becoming a librarian became Belle's number one goal, it developed one day in elementary school and it's what kept her motivated throughout the entirety of her education. Once Belle had become an exceptional reader for her age, she began to read to her mother before she went to bed, and Colette always used to praise her, telling her that she would undoubtedly be able to read her goal and become a librarian.

But her mother was never around to see Belle become the librarian she had always wanted to be. When Belle was 18, her mother passed away as she tried to leave town. The completely wrecked red car had been found crashed into a tree, and Colette's body was completely crushed in the wreckage. No one knows what had caused Colette to crash the car, since no alcohol was found in her system, and Colette had always been an extremely cautious driver. Neither Belle or her father Moe, had ever been able to fully recover since that day.

Now Belle was 25, she had been a librarian for five years, ever since the mayor of the town known as Regina Mills, had decided to reopen Storybrooke library. The library had never been too busy, there wasn't enough people in the town to make it busy. Her father continued to run the flower shop that he and Colette, business was quite unpredictable, the pace of the business changed depending what time of year it was and what holidays or special occasions were approaching.

The library was never too busy. She had the odd visitor from the townspeople, but the library was never crowded- well, unless the local teacher Mary-Margarete brought a class over. The most frequent visitor of the library was Baedon Gold; he came over whenever his father was working late, but Baedon didn't mind that his father was late, he loved books. Baedon's father was Mr. Gold, a local business man who owned most of the buildings in the town. He didn't own the library; it was property of the mayor's office- but he did own her father's flower shop. Belle often listened to her father, and most of the townspeople complain about Mr. Gold's prices for the rent.

Belle didn't share the same opinion of Mr. Gold as the town did- she thought Mr. Gold to be more than fair when it came to his prices. Every time Mr. Gold popped over to the flower shop to collect rent whilst Belle was there, they always exchanged a hello and a smile, Mr. Gold always asked how Belle was, but never returned an answer when Belle returned the question. Some days, he'd often pass the window of the library closest to Belle, and on the odd occasion when Belle's eyes weren't fixed on a book, they'd always exchange a nod and a smile.

 _And together they walked back through the gateway to the Muggle world._

Another book finished. Belle smiled as she closed the library's copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, she had only started the book yesterday lunch time, so she was quite proud of herself. Her pale hands delicately closed the book, as she didn't want to fold the pages as the book closed. She slowly rose from her seat behind the circulation desk. As she stood, she saw the familiar sight of Mr. Gold out the corner of her eye, he looked like he was in quite a hurry, but still he managed to turn his head to smile at Belle, and Belle couldn't help but return the smile. She distinctively remembered her father mentioning earlier that morning, that it the flower shop's rent day, but she had been to engrossed in a book to clearly remember any of the morning's conversation.

Although Belle had already read the Harry Potter series at least three times before, she knew she could never grow tired of it. The next fifteen minutes was spent continuously reading Prisoner of Azkaban, whenever Belle read she seemed to lose track of time and became lost in the world of fiction, the only way she managed to keep track of the time was when she occasionally looked up from her book to the clock. Her gaze drifted off to the window again, as she watched the townspeople walk through the street.

Something caught her attention, the sight of her father's flower van going up the street. She tilted her head in question, there was no reason for her father to leave the shop, especially considering tomorrow was Valentine's Day- their busiest day. Although the thought was going to trouble her later, she quickly dismissed the thought, and continued to read her book.

The rest of the day seemed to fly by as Belle was completely engrossed in her book. She did have one visitor, Archie who came to get out a book about crickets, but that was it. The clock sitting in front of her on her desk struck four and it was finally time for Belle to lock the library up for another night. She left her book on the circulation desk, as she preferred to keep her home reading separate to her library reading- If she took her library books home she'd very quickly run out of things to read.

The door closed behind her, and she took out her keys to lock the door. Her arms quickly wrapped around her body, trying to keep the cold out of her long coat as she walked down the Main Street and towards her father's flower shop. The shop came into view, and something was missing- the van she had seen earlier. She removed one arm from around her coat, and wrapped her fingers around the door handle. With one twist of her wrist, she managed to push open the red door to her father's shop, Game of Thorns.

"Father?" She called out as she closed the door behind her with a squeak. Her father immediately came out of the back room, red faced- usually when Belle came into the shop after work he'd be waiting for her at the counter, immediately asking her about how her day was.

"What's wrong?" Belle took a few steps forward, and Moe looked down, like he was ashamed of himself.

"I… I wasn't able to keep up with my payments, so Mr. Gold took the van, with all the Valentine's Day stock in the back..." He only looked up to Belle at the end. Belle frowned at her father. "I took a loan from him a few months ago, and was required to make my first payment today… I was hoping he'd just forget or give me a one-day extension."

"H-how much of a loan did he give you?" Her voice was quiet, her head tilted in curiosity as she watched her dad.

"T-ten thousand dollars…" He whispered, his voice was thick with shame. Belle gasped and lifted her hand over her mouth, as she stared at her father in disbelief.

"And when were you planning on telling me this?"

"I thought I'd be able to pay it all back… I was going to tell you when the money had gone to good use… I just didn't expect the situation to go badly this quickly." He took a step towards Belle, and Belle immediately took a step back.

"I'll… I'll go and see Mr. Gold… there must be a way to give you an extension on the loan." Belle immediately turned her back from her father, she couldn't bear to look at him. Everyone knew that they should make deals with Mr. Gold, but yet- everyone still managed to get caught up in the desperation.

If anyone in town found out about this loan issue, they'd immediately blame Mr. Gold without another question- but Belle blamed her father entirely for this whole issue. But yet- Belle was still on her way to see Mr. Gold in hope that she'd be able to make a deal, some would call that stupidity- but Belle called it family.

As she walked back along the Main Street and towards Mr. Gold's shop, her mind began racing. She'd never been into the shop with a request of making a deal before, she'd only ever been inside to quickly browse at the antiques or to make sure Baedon had gotten back to his papa safely after spending the afternoon in the library.

Finally, she managed to make her way to the door of Mr. Gold Pawnbroker and Antiquities Dealer. Her eyes closed briefly, it would have been an understatement to say she was nervous about making a deal. She took a deep breath, trying to work up the courage to open the door. She opened the door, and before she had a chance to turn around and run away, a bell rang to signal her arrival to anyone inside.

No going back now.


End file.
